Final Fantasy XIII Rant
by The Nameless Author
Summary: My take on how authors butcher the characters Lightning, Fang, and Serah in fan fiction. How they should NOT refer to Lightning as Claire and why.


Final Fantasy XIII Fan Fiction Rant

Disclaimer: I own nothing by Square Enix or the characters named below.

Hello this is a rant about authors who continuously write fan fiction and for Final Fantasy XIII.

Every time I read a piece of fan fiction be it between Fang/Lightning, Lightning/Vanille, Lightning/Hope or even just no romance at all, everyone calls Lightning by her birth name Claire. This is especially done with her sister Serah. Fact is Serah never, ever ever called Lightning by her birth name in the video game. The only one to do so was Galenth Dysley who was a fal'Cie in disguise as Serah and did it to upset Lightning.

In Final Fantasy XIII not once do any of the other characters in the game refer to Lightning as Claire. In fact even after the confrontation with Dysley not one person calls her that. She does not give anyone permission to call her that name.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah never calls her sister that name either. It's always Lightning. Go watch the cut scenes for FF XIII-2 and you will see that Serah calls her sister Lightning.

I find this especially annoying that every author has to put in "Serah calls her sister Claire" and they misrepresent Serah and misrepresent Lightning over and over again. Most authors do get Lightning's personality correct but they continually refer to her as Claire when it is out of character for not only Serah but also Fang and anyone else to refer to her as such.

Author's who write for this genre should go play the games. Play the first one, play the second one. Then when writing refer to those games. Yes it is fan fiction, and yes there are some liberties taken, but don't go and alter a character just because you feel like it.

I always go by a rule of thumb when reading or attempting to write something for a pre-established universe. If a character does not portray something, or do something normally then forcing them to do so is very against their character. So don't do it, plain and simple because it breaks the suspension of disbelief especially for those of us who've played the games and seen the characters already established.

Example would be having Bruce Wayne aka Batman act unlike who he is in the comics or the cartoons. One does not have Batman smiling, joking around and acting like a buffoon. Nor does one have Bruce Wayne who is supposed to be a billionaire playboy acting all broody and serious like his alter ego Batman.

This is what has me so irked about fan fiction written for this game. Then there is another inconsistency. People refer to Fang as taller than Lightning. I've never once seen Fang when standing side by side with Lightning, taller than her. Furthermore, Fang doesn't have this super thick accent when she speaks. People writing for her continue to give her something she does not have. Fang's accent is a light as Vanille's accent. Yes they have different timbres to their voices. Everyone has a different voice, but their accents aren't thick.

This brings me to my final point. If you are going to write fan fiction for a certain game, movie, anime, tv series, book or whatever it is keep as true to the characters as possible. Don't make someone call someone something they normally wouldn't. Yes I know everyone has their favorite pairings. And yes in say Final Fantasy XIII there is some sexual under current going on with Lightning and Fang which can translate into Fang/Lightning fiction or whatever fiction you desire.

However, don't have Serah start calling Lightning her birth name of Claire. Don't have Fang call Lighting her birth name Claire. Don't have Lightning have people say it's okay to call her Claire.

In fact in the game Lightning only gave people permission to call her Light for short as a sign of intimacy. Only Fang got away with calling her Sunshine and other nicknames. Fang even knew not to call Lighting the name of Claire.

So in conclusion, when writing fan fiction for any genre make sure you at least keep true to character personality and established character traits. Changing a characters way of speaking should not be done. Changing Serah or Fang to call Lightning the name of Claire should not be done.

Just because Galenth Dysley called Lightning the name Claire while posing as Serah does not mean that Serah would call her sister that. It's been proven in FFXIII-2.

As for flamers who want to call me out on this. I won't be responding to flames, they will just go to feed my cat who noms on them anyways.


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